2 Japanese children to stay in mother’s custody

A Dhaka court has dismissed the appeal filed by Bangladesh-born US citizen Imran Sharif to keep his two children in his custody, paving the way for upholding the verdict of the Family Court.

Ultimately, the two children of Bangladesh-born US citizen Imran Sharif and his wife Japanese citizen Eriko Nakano will remain in their mother’s custody.

Dhaka District and Sessions Judge AHM Habibur Rahman Bhuiyan delivered the verdict on Sunday (July 16).

Shishir Monir, lawyer of the Japanese mother Nakano Eriko, and Nasima Akhter Lovely, lawyer of Bangladesh-born US citizen Imran Sharif, confirmed the information.

Supreme Court lawyer Nasima Akhter Lovely on behalf of Imran Sharif filed a petition with the High Court on June 6 seeking a change of court, expressing no confidence in the judge in the appeal hearing regarding the custody of the two Japanese children. After hearing, the HC dismissed it.

On March 9, the Appellate Division rejected Eriko Nakano’s application to take her two daughters with her. At the same time, the court ordered to dispose the appeal within three months regarding the custody of the two Japanese children.

The High Court on August 31, 2021, ordered Sharif and Nakano to live at a Gulshan flat together for 15 days with their two daughters.

The court finally delivered its order as the couple failed to reach a consensus on where and with whom their two daughters -- Nakano Jasmine Malika, 11 and Nakano Laila Lina, 9 -- will live, in spite of repeated instructions from the court.

The Supreme Court, however, on February 13, 2022, said, until the disposal of the case by the family court, the two children will remain in the custody of their mother, while their father can visit them at their Gulshan flat.

In February 2021, Sharif filed a case with the family court seeking the custody of his two daughters.

Japanese mother Nakano Eriko and Bangladeshi father Imran Sharif got wedlocked in Japan in 2008. In sequel to quarrels in their conjugal lives, Nakano filed for divorce with a Japanese court at the beginning of 2020. Then Imran came to Bangladesh along with his two school-going daughters.